Maximize SCRA and MLA for free travel

Monthly Archives: July 2018

CAPT Spencer of the USAF reached out to me from reddit to write a guest post on his blogmilitarymoneymanual.com . He also has a book on Amazon, and has great articles on becoming financially independent by the age of 40. I am looking forward to this collaboration, and it should be better than the spotty and sarcastic relationship we got with www.trainwrecktrader.com! So I asked Spencer what the good folks at the USAF are interested in and he wrote:

I was thinking about a blog post on how many AMEX Platinums a smart servicemembers could have, how to get them (PC non Platinum cards, pick up the non-Vanilla flavors of Platinum), and how much all that would be worth annually (Schwab + Ameriprise + Vanilla + Green (PC) + PRG (PC) ) and then times 2 if you have a spouse could be $2000 in airline credits a year, $2000 in Uber credits annually, etc.

Spencer made me realize I never made a combined SOP post on how to get multiple platinums to multiply the annual benefits of the card. So here goes my first guest post to be cross posted to militarymoneymanual.com !

One of the greatest perks of being active duty is the generous interpretation of the SCRA from the good folks at American Express. They are not obligated to waive the $550 annual fee on their AmEx Personal Platinum charge card, but they have been doing for many years. I can only assume they do this because they make money on the back end, on retailers that take AmEx. With more card members spread across thew world, this waiver is the cheapest PR they are going to get when every service-members has one of these in their pockets for no annual fee.

I also like to think that the majority of AmEx Platinum holders do not take advantage of any of their benefits and pay the $550. Where just the savvy few actually maximize these things on an annual basis. We are also some of the most financially responsible members of the workforce seeing how we would lose our security clearance if our credit score started to dip. This post is to outline the many approaches to getting multiple Personal Platinum and Biz Cards to maximize these benefits.

Each AmEx Personal Platinum card pays dividends in the form of these annual benefits:

$200 in Uber Credits (good for rides and uber eats) paid in the form of $15 each month (with a $20 extra bonus in December) into the Uber account the AmEx card is added to. I added all of my 11 personal cards to my wife’s Uber account so she sees a credit of $165 on the first of each month ($385 in December). This credit must be used by midnight Hawaii time at the end of the month or will be lost.

$200 in flight fee reimbursements for an airline of your choosing. This resets every 01 January, which means if you get a new card in November, you can hit the benefit again in January. I use all 11 of mine for $2,200 in AA gift cards, some people use it for Delta or Southwest gift cards. The current airlines and what AmEx pays for are found here: AA Thread, AS Thread, B6 Thread, DL Thread, HA Thread, UA Thread, WN Thread

$100 for global entry which presumably should only be used every 5 years for yourself, but some reports of any charge of $100 for any application will be covered without any limitation (try at your own risk). I would just use one $100 credit per card per 5 years.

AmEx has a lifetime (de facto 7 year rule) limitation on bonuses to be paid for a new product. If you ever got the bonus for getting a card at any time in your life they will NEVER pay that bonus again.

You can’t apply for a product you already have. If you have a Green AmEx, they won’t give you another green AmEx or if you have one personal Plat, you can’t apply for another.

You can only product change after one year of having the card to another card you have

Co-Branded cards are considered separate products. the Morgan Stanley Platinum Card is not the same as the Charles Schwab Platinum Card. You can get the sign up benefit for both.

Your annual fee will get waived for AD and reservists, but if you are in a state that doesn’t have common property rules your non active duty spouse may not get a waiver.

Some co-branded Platinum Cards require relationships to keep open (Schwab and Morgan Stanley, but not Ameriprise)

There appears to be no limit to how many CHARGE cards you can have, there is a 5 CREDIT card limit.

Manufactured spending will get you shutdown, buying only gift cards and paying with multiple accounts is suspicious for bust our fraud.

Strategy:

Always get the highest product first, then the lower compatible product to product change in the future.

DO NOT product change to a product you haven’t gotten yet

Go slow and make sure you hit the minimum spend for the bonuses, it will take many years to get to where I am now

I asked my O-6 select friend what he thought the number of cards you need are and he said “infinite”. However I am framing this in the terms of maintenance, as each card requires time investment to maximize the benefit. Otherwise the effort will be for a benefit you have no time to use. Using the below chart you can see how many cards you will need to fit your life style:

# of Pts

$ Uber/ Mo

$ Uber Dec

Airline

Saks 6 mo

Total Yr

1

$15

$35

$200

$50

$500

2

$30

$70

$400

$100

$1,000

3

$45

$105

$600

$150

$1,500

4

$60

$140

$800

$200

$2,000

5

$75

$175

$1,000

$250

$2,500

6

$90

$210

$1,200

$300

$3,000

7

$105

$245

$1,400

$350

$3,500

8

$120

$280

$1,600

$400

$4,000

9

$135

$315

$1,800

$450

$4,500

10

$150

$350

$2,000

$500

$5,000

11

$165

$385

$2,200

$550

$5,500

12

$180

$420

$2,400

$600

$6,000

13

$195

$455

$2,600

$650

$6,500

14

$210

$490

$2,800

$700

$7,000

15

$225

$525

$3,000

$750

$7,500

16

$240

$560

$3,200

$800

$8,000

17

$255

$595

$3,400

$850

$8,500

18

$270

$630

$3,600

$900

$9,000

19

$285

$665

$3,800

$950

$9,500

20

$300

$700

$4,000

$1,000

$10,000

Take your time, it took me 5 years to have 13 Personal and 3 Business between my wife and myself.

AmEx’s Concierge for their Global Dining Collection under promised and over delivered again! We got a complementary bottle of wine and a black truffle course at The French Laundry last time I used the system. Last night we went to The Girl & The Goat in Chicago expecting just a regular dining experience, but it turned out to be special. When we sat down they offered a special tasting menu that had smaller versions of 10 courses. Naturally we went for the chef’s menu since everything looked good, and It wasn’t until about an hour into the meal that I noticed no other table had the same deluge of food as ours. The food was very good, worth the hype. Even a dish like duck tongue (of which I have had in chinatown many times) was reinvented and improved. Service was on par, never a moment I didn’t feel unattended in a packed lively house.

In the end of the meal (1.5 hours and 10 courses later)the bill came, the only food charge was “AmEx” at $75 a person. I asked the host and she informed me that the 10 course tasting menu is exclusive to tables booked with the AmEx concierge. So there you go, impressed again by these little hidden perks! I went to the website after the fact, and it mentioned both Duck Duck Goat and Girl & The Goat have a special tasting menu. Little goat has a free beer flight!

The whole experience was wonderful because it was incidental. My usual route to book dining is using Open table, but for this particular place It is only open one or two months ahead at terrible times. For example if you were to try to book today:

You got to wait till August 13th, 2018 for one table at 9:15 pm. The only other reservation that is open is in September:

This 10 September 2018 date is at awful old people dining times of 16:30 and 16:45. I went for the AmEx concierge because they let me book in April for July. I called AmEx and made the reservation on April 2nd and on April 3rd I got this email back confirming the reservation:

Dear Dr. Derp,

Thank you so much for speaking with me this evening so that we could secure a reservation for you. When you mentioned you live in the area I thought about how you are close to so many amazing restaurants, and there are many that we work with regularly, so it is great that you have reached out to us for assistance. I am excited to confirm your reservation at Girl & The Goat. The details of your booking are listed below — please note the cancellation policy.

Should you need any changes to your reservation, please let us know as soon as possible so we can make your request with the restaurant. If you need transportation, we would be happy to assist you.

Date/time: Friday, July 13, 2018 at 7:30 PM
Number in party: 2
Reserved under:
Reservation No.:
Cancellation policy: Your credit card was not required for this reservation, so there is no charge if you wish to cancel. We do ask that you contact us at your earliest convenience if your plans change as a courtesy for the restaurant.

I hope that you both have a wonderful time at Girl & the Goat in July. If you need any more reservations in the future, just remember Concierge is about more than getting a reservation or booking your next special dinner. With the Global Dining Collection you can enjoy access to these additional benefits: exclusive culinary events with our handpicked team of world-renowned chefs, customized experiences at celebrated restaurants around the world and special table access for Platinum Card® Members

If you have any questions or need any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us, we are always happy to help. We can be reached at the number on the back of your card, option 2. Alternatively, if you would like to contact us via email, we can be reached by replying to this email or at platinumrequests@concierge.americanexpress.com. We look forward to being of assistance to you in the future. Thank you for being a loyal American Express Platinum Card® member.

Psychologically I think I’ve become a “worse” person since I started churning. I find myself looking at the world through a lens of churning which is admittedly very exploitative and selfish. I’m constantly thinking of little ways I can score a few dollars here and there in deals and it’s not healthy. I’ve done some scaling back (I don’t do little deals that DoC posts about that are under $50) and would like to do more. Overall I think churning is something that has gone beyond where it belongs in life (for me) and I need to step back so it’s literally only a hobby that has some time devoted to it (much like time I set aside for going rock climbing or watching Survivor or other hobbies), instead of letting it permeate my entire life like it has been.

My three month break from the game certainly has realigned my perception of reality. Have my super aspie ways finally caught up to me? Had I just become so immersed in the numbers and valuations game I had forgotten what was truly important? Meh, maybe, but certainly it hasn’t made me anymore of a calculating maximizer asshole than I was before. I just have more time for other stuff once I have no card to meet spend.

I have met the minimum spend months ago on my Iberia card, I switched back to my old cards for once, and this has been one of the biggest time savers by just putting all of my purchases on these categories:

Hello, can you post an update on your current card collection and what your strategies are? Thanks!

I wrote about my 5 AmEx card strategy here and here is how I look for AmEx, keep in mind you can have only 5 credit cards per person, but unlimited charge cards. Here is where we are and where we are going:

The $550 Annual Fee on AmEx Platinum can be justified by its annual $100 in Saks 5th bonus, $200 in Airline Bonus, $200 in Uber bonus, airport lounge access, and $100 for Global Entry. For active duty military and reservists the $550 fee is waived meaning the card actually pays you $600 in bonuses each year! Use my link here if you don’t already have the card.

I bought $50 worth of goods at Saks using the SOP here and got the $50 credit from AmEx today. It only took two days to post the charge, the ordered was delivered after 3 days via shop runner, and then 3 more days to get the credit! I also went for the free gift wrap, and it looks amazing!

Note that the items ordered are reported to AmEx, so they must be keeping track of if you buy a gift card or merchandise. Also note that gift cards are ineligible for the credit:

Right as I was about to check out today, my 4% Ebates cash-back at Saks 5th online dropped to 2%! However a new feature came up where you can link a credit card and earn 4% in store. I went ahead and linked my remaining AmEx Platinum Cards to the Ebates site and hope to earn 4% on the many food items that do not have free shipping online.

For example all the Godiva Chocolate is exempt for free shipping as it is shipped form the manufature:

When you try to check out you get this message:

The shipping method that you have selected is not valid for this promotion. Please check the terms of this promotion before continuing checkout or call customer service at 1.877.551.7257 for further assistance.

Reader Big Danny Bru came across this interesting perk from AmEx and Fanatics.com shown above. If you buy a Jersey and the player gets traded within 90 days you will get a new one with the new team or same team with a different player! Terms below:

Offer. If you purchase any jersey on www.fanatics.com that is embellished with the name of a currently active professional player (each an “Original Jersey”) that is identified as being covered by our Jersey Assurance™ Program at the time ordered (“Covered Jersey”) and the player whose name and number appears on the Original Jersey is officially traded or signs with a new team as a free agent (“Prior Team Jersey”) within ninety (90) days after your Covered Jersey was purchased, then you may request an in-stock replacement jersey that is embellished with (A) the same player’s name on a jersey from the new team in exchange for a returned Prior Team Jersey, or (B) the name of a different, current player on the Original Jersey’s team in exchange for a Prior Team Jersey (each of (A) and (B), a “Replacement Jersey”), in each case subject to all of the following terms and conditions (“Offer”), including the need to return the Covered Jersey to us.

Extended Amex Offer for NBA Jerseys. If you purchase an Original Jersey for a currently active professional player that is part of the National Basketball Association on www.store.NBA.com, www.fanatics.com or the NBA Flagship Store located at 545 5th Avenue in New York City, New York using your valid American Express payment card which is also a Covered Jersey and the player whose name and number appears on the Original Jersey is officially traded or signs with a new team as a free agent within three-hundred and sixty (360) days after your Covered Jersey was purchased (each an “Amex Covered Jersey”), then you may request a Replacement Jersey, in each case subject to the Offer Terms and Conditions below.

BLUF: $100 statement credit for Saks 5th online or in store. Must add offer in AmEx site per card. No gift cards, no Off 5th. The $100 is split into $50 every Jan to Jun and another $50 July to Dec. AmEx Personal Platinum Only, Co-Branded (MB, GS, CS, Ameriprise, MS). NOT offered on the Business Platinum. $50 only for basic member and any authorized users who charge to Saks will take off from the basic member’s credit. Stackable with 2 or 4% Ebates offer. No minimum purchase required, free shipping with shop runner which is also free with AmEx Platinum. Free gift wrapping on eligible items.

Note that Active Duty and Reservists are eligible for the annual fee waiver of $550 on the AmEx Platinum. Spousal fee waivers vary by state of record. However adding a spouse as a AU would get the AU fee waived.

Obtain an Personal AmEx Platinum. Use links below if you want to support this resource: